faded_Glory

Some new developments to report on, some good, others not so good! To begin with the latter, I thought I had sorted the lamps but the other day when I had the power on for a bit longer a rather disturbing smell began to emanate from under the baseboard. I turned it over to check and hey ho, all the little resistors had melted! So much for my electrical skills... Strangely enough the lamps were still lit up, albeit some a bit brighter than others. Even so, this was clearly not a sustainable situation. So I ripped out all the cheapo Chinese lamps and replaced them with some solidly engineered German ones. These are from metal rather than plastic, come with all the necessary bits soldered on and, most importantly, with instructions on how to connect them to my transformer. They are of single rather than double design but I still like them: To properly wire them in I bought a small connection board from a well-known online auction site. When it arrived I had to scratch my head because I couldn't figure out how to connect half of the wires - until I realised they had soldered on one side the wrong way round! So now I am waiting for a replacement before I can test the new lamps. However, there is much more exciting news! The other day I posted a lovely contemporary birds-eye view of the Fair, and something on it attracted my attention: A tethered balloon! Still a rather recent development at that time, it must have been an exciting and I imagine popular new way to see the world from above. Obviosly my Fair can't do without one, so without further ado I present the latest addition to the layout: A Montgolfière! The lovely balloon model came from the Internet (where else?) and it is tethered with a 2mm steel rod that fits into a hole in the baseboard. Of course now I am researching 19th century balloon winches.... So that is it for the latest progress. I am still designing the train shed and am making some progress there, but I need to get some materials in before I can start building that for real. In the meantime I really must get on with painting those lovely period people...

This is looking really nice!

If I may, I can show off my other H0e models. Let's just say that several countries sent their latest and newest locomotive power to the World Fair as demonstrators Germany: Austria: Switzerland:

Thank you all for your kind comments. This weekend there won't be any further modeling on this one, just some quiet contemplation. I am waiting on a few orders to come in and then hopefully there will be more progress. I also sorely need to finish connecting the points on my fixed layout, a job I have been putting off for far too long. I love those French narrow gauge lines (although I am far from an expert in them). It is a shame that there seems to be so little RTR on the market, unlike for Swiss, Austrian, German and British prototypes. If Bemo would bring out a selection of French H0m models I would be sorely tempted! Last year I visited the Alpes Maritimes and the meter gauge railway from Nice to Digne, which would be a fantastic subject to model, either in ancient or modern form. Currently it would need a lot of kitbashing and scratch building to get something going. There are several French companies that produce very fine scenery kits so building a layout is certainly possible, but I think you would struggle to find things to run on it.

A little bit more progress today, I've installed some lower fencing that doesn't obstruct the view so much, and the French gardeners have been planting some suitable flowering shrubs Inspired by all your helpful ideas and suggestions I have also been re-thinking the train shed idea. I still want one, but I now think that a wooden structure would be a bit out of place here. Ideally it would be somewhat more in the style of the Galerie des Machines, with steel and glass. I also like the idea of a straight frontage with some steps leading up to it. Rummaging in my spare box I found a surplus end piece of a Kibri platform canopy that I might be able to use as the top part of the gable. This will need a ground floor with lots of glass, and lower wings at both ends to make it long enough for the train. The wings might actually be curved, like the old Trocadero palace that was built across the Seine, for the earlier World Fair of 1878. This will make it easier to fit along the edge of the pizza boards. As very quick mockup of the shape shows something like this: We'll see, this needs some more thinking and puzzling. It should not become an overbearing structure, the main focus of the layour should still be the tower. By the way you can see the beginnings of a fountain under the tower - there was one in real life too: The base is the plastic top of a little shaker cup for applying ground scatter. I'm still chasing some suitable statues!

I did solder in the resistors that came with them.

Absolutely, I'm already hunting around for suitable material! Plus one from the top of the tower too, as shown here: Hmm, this picture shows something else that piques my interest...

Ha, that is brilliant, what a good find! I'm sure I can find a small spot somewhere for a "vendeur de crème glacée"! In other news I've managed to install the lamps and get them to work too, thanks to lots of help on another subforum here. Next up are the park benches and a spot of gardening

Well, I managed to get them working. I connected them as above, 2 groups of 3 lamps each in parallel. When I connected these 2 groups in series they lighted up, but very weakly. So I connected them in parallel (so all of them in parallel) and on the 14V AC they now light up very nicely, without any flickering. As I said above I was overthinking it and too worried to blow something up. Thanks for all the help and my confidence in electrics has just gone up a tiny little bit

Well it would have to be a more modest affair, given the limited space for it. Once I started to research this World Fair I realised that the possibilities are almost endless! The trouble is, as always, the limited space. Perhaps I should demolish my fixed layout and use that space for a full blown Paris 1889 one! As for the pizza, with a train shed and a fountain the space is pretty much full, the rest would be small details. Were there any ice cream vendors in 1889?

Some great ideas there! The red/white striped platform canopy on the other side is inspired by the pavilion on the book cover, I am looking for something a bit different on this side. As for the 'plaza', the empty space between the tower and the shed, I am thinking of putting one of those over-the-top ornate fountains there that they so loved back in those days, with marble statues of lions and Greek godesses and whatnot. I haven't found anything like that ready made so I would have to make something up. But I like the idea of a raised area with steps, I'l have a think. For sure flags are a great idea too. This pic shows one of the tents, the type of fountain, and flags. Mind you, they are all French flags! (This picture must have been coloured in, I don't think they had colour photography in those days). Also plenty of chairs for all the point operators

I have been reconsidering adding a background. Frankly it doesn't look right at all, because it looks exactly like what it is: a botched-on piece of carboard with a picture on it. So now I have a different idea but I would like some feedback on it: a train shed. Because of the tight curvature of the pizza this needs to be either a curved building, which I think would look strange, or one made of a number of angled segments. I made a mock-up and I think this might work. Tolerances are pretty fine but the train does run through it without fouling anything. I'm thinking of cladding it with real wooden strips, probably vertical, and roofing it with shingles or something like that. It should resemble a temporary structure. Each segment would have a window in both sides. There would probably be open doors at either end. Another idea here is to perhaps open up the inner wall of the middle two segments and add a couple of pillars to support the roof there. This would nicely break up the monotony and it would add a second stop opposite from the platform canopy on the other side. What do people think? Interesting or idiotic (that is, even more idiotic than the rest of the layout )?

I think they are brown-black-black-black then. So here is my thinking now: I can group the lamps in 2 groups of 3, i.e. 6 LEDs per group. I connect each group of 6 to a small circuit board under the baseboard, with one resistor per LED. That puts those 6 LEDs in parallel so the current draw will be reduced, hopefully mitigating against too high currents? I can then wire the two circuit board in series, so the voltage drops to 7V instead of 14V, right? I hope this makes sense, as you can tell I'm not much of a sparkie!

Right, inspecting the lamps through a magnifying glass it appears that the two uninsulated wires actually run through separate channels up the lamp post. So the two LEDs in each lamp are actually totally separate. I soldered one resistor to one insulated wire and connected that, plus its corresponding uninsulated wire to the 12V DC output, and with a twist of the knob it lit up I must have connected it the right way round! Then I connected both wires to the 14V AC and it lit up too, with decent brightness and no flickering. It looks like I am overthinking this and I should just wire each LED separately with one resistor on each input wire. I can solder the whole lot to a small piece of circuit board that I can stick underneath the baseboard. What type of 12V plugs and sockets do you guys use to connect such a caboodle to the controller? I obviously want to make that detachable for transport (and so I can use it on other layouts). BTW my multimeter suggests that the resistors are 100 Ohm, does that make sense?

Thank you all for your comprehensive replies! I can't really make out the colours of the bands, the resistors are tiny and the bands all are very dark - possible one brown and the rest black? I can't really say. John ks' diagrams are very helpful. If I assume that the LEDs are wired consistently (i.e. the insulated wires are the same polarity for both LEDs) I can try to rig up one lamp using his third diagram.

This is a really nice looking layout! I love your buildings.

Thank you Guy for your reply, very helpful! It sounds like it would be best to connect each lamp separately then? I guess I could rig up a small circuit board under the baseboard to connect everything to. What puzzles me is that I have 10 lamps and 10 resistors, but each lamp has 2 LED's. Pehaps the LED's in each lamp are meant to be connected in series, and then the resistor goes in the combined feed wire? Or maybe the Chinese designer didn't think as far as that I have a few more lamps than I need so perhaps I should just go and experiment a bit.

If they deserve a chair, than certainly the station master deserves one too!

Today I have been working on the platform canopy using some parts from an old Kibri kit and plastic card. Not quite finished yet but the idea is there I think. Just for the picture I put two of the lamps in, some of the park benches and bits of fencing (plus of course The Tower). I am not convinced about the fence, it seems too tall and blocks the view. I'm going to look for a lower one, hopefully in the same style which I think fits the scene. Re. the chair, I found the photoetched ones, beautiful but they are not cheap. Faller do a set for half the price, a different type but I think these could look quite period as well, with a lick of paint. Finally I have ordered an updated set of people, now in 00 scale rather than H0, which I think will better fit the scale of the train. I will wait for those before I will start to paint the figures, which is a bit of a chore at the best of times

I am hoping to install some working lamps on the layout but I'm not sure how to do that, so I posted a query in one of the other subforums here. Any help would be gratefully received!

I bought a set of cheap LED lamps on Ebay but I'm not sure how to wire these up. Each lamp has two lights and there are 4 thin wires coming out of the base, 2 insulated and 2 uninsulated. A bunch of resistors came with the set but no instructions. I want to place 6 of these lamps (12 lights in total) on my small layout (Paris 1889). I will power the layout with an old Fleischman controller which has 2 outputs, one variable DC up to 14V for the loco, and a second fixed 14V AC for accessories. I would not want to use the loco output for the lamps because obviously the light would then vary along with the loco speed. So it seems I would need to connect the lights to the 14V AC outlet. Will these LED's work on AC? I don't know what the normal voltage is for these LED's, would it be 3V? So I'm thinking of connecting 6 of them in series, and these then in parallel with the second batch of 6 also in series. That ought to work on a 14V outlet I think. To wire them in series I presume that I need to daisy chain each time one of the uninsulated wires to one of the insulated ones? I could of course just experiment with them but I rather not blow them up through ignorance so any advice would be welcome!

Ha, last night I was actually looking for 00/H0 chairs on Ebay! I think they are brilliant, I might still include one at the halt for the station master

Those are beautiful models, thanks for showing them! What scale/gauge are they? Where is that Pechot bourdon displayed? That livery makes me think it was perhaps a military engine?

Thank you! My copy of the booklet shows 1978 as the date of publishing. I rummaged through my spare box and found parts from a Kibri platform canopy that I never used, they appear to be perfect for conversion into one of those jolly Fair tents, as visible on the left in the picture below: Stay tuned!